Articles

Smallholder farmers in the agricultural sector produce more than half of the world’s food supply accounting for 90 per cent of Africa’s agricultural production. Yet, constraints related to production, quality and markets continue to hamper a sector that employs majority of the population in Africa. Agriculture accounts for about 24 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product (GDP) with an estimated 75 per cent of the population depending on it directly or indirectly. It’s estimated that agricultural sectors contributes 63 per cent of employment in Sub Saharan Africa and as much as83 per cent in Ethiopia and 81 per cent in Rwanda.

The horticultural industry in Kenya is dominated by smallholder farmers who constitute 80 per cent of the growers and contribute about 60 per cent to the export market. The export market constitutes about four per cent of the horticultural production. Despite the huge contribution made by the smallholder farmers in Africa towards food security and income generation, the majority of these populations live in rural areas with about 56 per cent of them living below the poverty line.

Over the years, Africa’s smallholder farmers have been unable to realize profitable returns on their farm investment due to poor technologies and methods of production and post-harvest handling, limited product value addition and diversification and weak marketing linkages. However, through several projects initiated by the Government of Kenya (GoK), local mango and passion smallholder farmers, have significantly improved their fruit production and quality. One such GoK project is the Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project (KAPAP), through which the government is up scaling technologies and innovations for sustainable agricultural production and growth of mango and passion fruit smallholder farmers in various parts of the country.